


Count to Ten

by celeste9



Category: Primeval
Genre: Amnesia, Established Relationship, Huddling For Warmth, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sex Pollen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-30
Updated: 2013-10-30
Packaged: 2017-12-31 00:14:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1025061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/pseuds/celeste9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Connor gazed out the front of the cave into the darkness, unable to shake the feeling of wrongness that permeated this place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Count to Ten

**Author's Note:**

> Written to fill a postage stamp extra for Trope Bingo, tropes are sex pollen, hurt/comfort, huddling for warmth, and amnesia. Beta by fredbassett.

Connor had started to feel weird after they’d walked through that field of pretty purple wildflowers. He loosened his scarf around his neck because he was suddenly too warm, which was odd considering that it wasn’t actually all that warm. The breeze was chilly and the sun was hidden behind the clouds.

He was also inexplicably conscious of Becker walking beside him. He couldn’t stop marveling at how the wind barely even stirred Becker’s hair while Connor’s own probably looked like a messy mop on top of his head. He noticed the way Becker’s tight t-shirt clung to his broad chest beneath the tac vest and how the angle at which Becker was holding his gun put his biceps into flexion.

“Are you wearing anything?” Connor asked.

“I should think you’d be able to tell if I wasn’t,” Becker said, still staring ahead of them.

“No, I don’t mean clothes,” Connor said, now unable to stop thinking about Becker naked. It was incredibly unhelpful but admittedly extremely pleasant. “I mean, did you put cologne on this morning? Did you change your aftershave?”

“No.”

“It’s just that you smell really good. Not like usual though, it’s different, sort of, I don’t know, I’d say flowery but you aren’t girly or anything.”

Becker stopped walking, holding his gun loosely at his side. “That’s funny, I was thinking the same thing about you.”

“That I’m not girly?”

“That you smell different.” Becker leaned in close, sniffing Connor’s hair, and that should have been awkward and weird and gross but it really, really wasn’t.

Instead Connor felt himself leaning more into Becker’s space, pressing up against the firm length of him. Becker was practically radiating heat, which made Connor feel even hotter, until he could feel himself sweating.There was a bead of sweat dripping down the back of his neck.

He tried counting in his head, as if that might possibly calm him down. He focused on the numbers and tried to remember where he was, what he was supposed to be doing. There was something wrong and he knew it but he didn’t care, God, he didn’t care.

“Connor,” Becker said, his voice low and rough. He was nuzzling Connor’s hair now.

“Oh, please, God,” Connor muttered, feeling inexplicably turned on, like he might burst if Becker didn’t touch him _now,_ God, please.

Becker ran his hand up Connor’s chest and over his neck. His breath was puffing in warm little bursts against Connor’s skin.

Connor could feel Becker hard through his combat trousers and he uttered what was probably an entirely embarrassing moan but he didn’t care, he wanted Becker right now, he wanted Becker to have him right there in the grass, he wanted Becker on him, in him, everywhere. He clutched his hands around Becker’s waist, letting them drop lower to cup Becker’s arse.

Becker tilted his hips and rubbed. “Connor,” he said, “Connor, please,” and Connor kissed away his words.

-

They lay in a tangled heap of tired limbs on the grass. Becker’s arm was thrown over Connor’s waist and Connor was brushing the tips of his fingers along Becker’s hand, over and back again. He felt like his brain was emerging from a fog but he felt completely and utterly satisfied.

“That was…” Becker started.

“Unexpected?” Connor offered.

“I was going to say unprofessional, but unexpected works, too.”

Connor rolled onto his side so he could see Becker’s face. “I don’t know how it’s unprofessional when we’re about as far from the ARC as we can get and there isn’t even anyone around.”

“Because we should be trying to find our way home, not shagging each other in the grass.”

Connor grinned. He couldn’t help it. “It was pretty awesome, though.”

Becker’s lips twitched in that way that meant he wanted to smile but was trying to look cool and unimpressed. “It was all right.”

“Just all right? Admit it, that was some of the best sex we’ve ever had. I think we were dosed with something.”

“Yes, I thought that, too. I felt like… I knew what I was doing, but it felt out of my hands.”

“Yeah,” Connor agreed, sobering. “I’m glad we do this all the time because it might’ve been awkward otherwise.”

“Perhaps a little.” Becker scanned the area, saying, “I’m not certain we are alone, though. I keep feeling as though we’re being watched, but there’s never anything there.”

“That’s creepy, thank you. I’m absolutely not terrified now.”

“I’ll protect you,” Becker said, getting up to his feet and holding his hand out to Connor.

Connor took it. He had accepted that Becker was the alpha male in this relationship a long time ago. He didn’t mind that much, to be honest. Becker getting bossy and protective and acting like he always knew best was a small price to pay for the way Becker looked at him, like Connor was special and amazing and worth something.

Plus, Becker’s arse. Connor would put up with a hell of a lot for Becker’s arse.

Which Connor was definitely not looking at while Becker bent over to start retrieving their abandoned clothes.

Okay, he was looking at it. He felt it was his right as Becker’s boyfriend.

Becker tossed Connor’s shirt at his head. “Come on, get dressed. We have an anomaly to locate.”

-

They didn’t find an anomaly. Instead, they found a tiny little cave to hole up in for the night, when it got too dark and too cold to keep moving. It was eerie how there didn’t seem to be any animals anywhere, but Becker was right. It did feel like someone - or something - was watching them. Connor wanted to get out of this place, wherever it was, as fast as they possibly could.

He sat back and watched Becker get a fire going with the brush they’d gathered, accepting that in this case, he’d be more a hindrance than a help. That happened a fair amount, actually. Survival skills weren’t exactly Connor’s strength.

Becker rummaged into the pockets of his tac vest and pulled out a couple of energy bars, one of which he gave to Connor. “Sorry this is all I’ve got. Tomorrow we’ve got to hope for some sign of animal life, or we’re going to be very hungry.”

Connor unwrapped the bar and took a big bite. It tasted horrible, but he was starving. Becker was right; after those flowers, which Connor was blaming for their little incident earlier, he was afraid to touch any of the plants.

He moved closer to the fire, shivering. Becker sat down beside him, looping his arm around Connor’s shoulders and tugging him in. Becker didn’t feel like the furnace he’d been earlier, but he was still pleasantly warm.

Sighing softly, Connor leaned his head against Becker’s shoulder. “I miss your bed.”

Becker chuckled, rubbing his hand up and down Connor’s arm. “I miss my bed, too. Don’t worry, we’ll be back before you know it. I’ll let you beat me at Call of Duty.”

“I always beat you; you’re terrible.”

“Only because it’s fake,” Becker said, sounding both indignant and insulted.

“They get military consultants when they’re putting those kinds of games together.”

“You’re using a hunk of plastic with buttons on it to shoot CGI characters on a screen. It’s never going to be like real.”

“All right, fair enough,” Connor admitted, mostly because he would never get anywhere trying to out compete Captain I’m Amazing at Everything I Do and I Win at Everything. It was always best to let Becker have his way, unless Connor felt like watching him sulk, which he generally didn’t.

Sometimes it was funny, though.

Connor gazed out the front of the cave into the darkness, still not able to shake that uncomfortable feeling of _wrongness_ that permeated this place. He wondered if it was possible they’d gone through that anomaly into an entirely different place from the world they knew, like an alternate dimension or a parallel universe.

“I keep expecting to see shining eyes out there,” he said. “Like they always have in cartoons.”

Becker pulled Connor in tighter against him and Connor couldn’t even be sure it was only him being protective, or wanting to share more of his body heat. Maybe Becker felt as wrong here as Connor did; maybe he needed the contact, too. Not that he’d ever say so. “Would that make you feel better or worse?”

“I don’t know,” Connor said, because it was the truth. All he knew was that he wished he was back home, cuddled up in bed with Becker.

-

In the morning, Becker climbed a tree to get a better bearing on where they were. He said there was a river not too far off so they decided to head in that direction. It seemed as good a chance as any that there might be some fish in it that they could catch. Or try to catch, anyway.

Connor didn’t know how to fish. He certainly didn’t know how to fish without any equipment. He wondered if Becker did. Connor was pretty sure any attempted fishing would end up with him face first in the river. It would be okay if Becker fell in the river, though. Becker looked good when he was wet.

What happened next was a bit of a blur. One second Becker was striding along beside Connor, half a step ahead, and the next second there was a humongous crashing sound and Becker was disappearing through the ground. Connor stumbled and fell, his feet slipping into the hole Becker had just made, but he grabbed at the ground and pulled himself away, scrabbling his fingers through the dirt.

Connor’s heart was racing and his palms were covered in scratches. He turned himself around and leaned his head over the side of the hole, peering down into the darkness. “Becker!” he shouted. “Becker, are you okay? Becker!”

There was no answer. Connor scrambled up to his feet and started running, searching for anything he could use to lower himself down to find Becker. He came upon a length of thick vine that looked strong, hoping it would be able to hold his weight. He cut a measure of it that he estimated would be long enough and then another bit to loop around his waist in case he needed it. He ran back to the hole and tied one end of the vine around a tree.

Gazing down into the hole, clutching the vine, Connor really wished he’d been better at climbing the rope in school. He also wished that when Becker went to the gym, Connor had gone with once or twice. Taking a deep breath, Connor dropped the vine over the side and started to climb down. His feet knocked into the dirt as he went down and he used the side as sort of a series of launching points, trying to take some of the weight off his upper body.

His muscles were straining, muscles he hadn’t even known he had, and sweat was beading on his skin. His hands hurt something awful but he kept going because Becker needed him. For once, Becker needed him; for once, Connor could do the saving. He didn’t let himself think that Becker might be dead, neck snapped or back broken.

It was maybe ten feet down when Connor could see the bottom clearly and jump onto his feet. It was dark, only a glimmer of daylight seeping in from the hole above. It looked like some sort of cave, or maybe a tunnel, but Connor didn’t have time to explore.

He immediately fell to his knees beside Becker’s still body. “Becker,” Connor said, but there was no response. He was clearly breathing though, so he wasn’t dead, but of course he wouldn’t have been, Becker couldn’t die, that was stupid. None of his limbs were at weird angles and nothing was sticking out or anything so with any luck there were no broken bones. He was, however, bleeding from his head.

There was a _lot_ of blood. Connor knew that head wounds always bled a lot but he was worried all the same. He took off his jacket and stuck it underneath Becker’s head to try to staunch it. He tried not to jostle Becker because he remembered that you weren’t supposed to move people if they might have spinal injuries and Connor didn’t know, it wasn’t like he could ask Becker if he could feel his toes.

“Please wake up,” Connor said softly, and stroked his fingers over Becker’s cheek. He definitely wasn’t imagining various scenarios in which Becker didn’t wake up, not ever, because that couldn’t happen. It couldn’t.

He pressed his finger to the pulse in Becker’s neck, counted the beats of his heart. He felt the evidence of Becker’s blood still running through his veins, his heart still beating in his chest. One, two, three...

It was a few minutes later that Becker began to stir. Connor’s heart felt like it skipped a beat out of relief.

“Becker,” Connor said, still touching his face. “Becker, here, it’s me. You’re fine, you’re going to be okay.”

Becker groaned quietly as his eyes slitted open, darting around before focusing on Connor. He tried to move, wincing as he did so.

“Just stay still, okay? How many fingers?”

“Two,” Becker said, managing to sound aggravated even then. “I’m not an idiot.”

Connor was trying not to smile because it wasn’t exactly appropriate, but Becker was just so... _Becker._ “No, but you could be concussed. You knocked your head pretty badly.”

“What happened?”

“You fell, the ground must have been eroding, and you hit your head. Are you okay? Can you feel everything? Do you feel nauseous? Is there anything broken? Because you looked okay, but I didn’t know for sure because you wouldn’t wake up and I couldn’t ask you and--”

“No,” Becker interrupted, a trifle more impatiently than usual when he was faced with Connor’s rambling. “Just my head hurts, and my arse, too.” He shifted, grimacing. “And I can recognise what a bruised rib feels like.”

“Thank God,” Connor said and couldn’t help himself from bending over so he could hug Becker, pressing his face into Becker’s neck. He kept his weight off him as much as he could and didn’t squeeze, because he imagined bruised ribs didn’t feel very nice at all, but he needed the contact.

“Okay, this is awkward,” Becker said, and he wasn’t holding Connor at all, his hands up in the air behind Connor’s back. “Er, who exactly are you?”

Connor felt his heart plummet. “Oh, crap.”

**_End_ **


End file.
